With former champion K.J. Noons stripped of the belt and now out of the title picture, Nick Diaz (18-7) and Eddie Alvarez (15-1) will meet for the vacant EliteXC lightweight belt next month.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported the likelihood of the bout for EliteXC’s Nov. 8 event in Reno, Nev., and the organization made it official during Saturday’s CBS-televised “Heat” event.

The Diaz vs. Alvarez bout is the second title fight signed for the Showtime-televised event.

The upcoming show, which will be EliteXC’s final event of the 2008 calendar year, will be headlined by a title fight between EliteXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler and challenger Joey Villasenor.

EliteXC Head of Fight Operations Jeremy Lappen told MMAjunkie.com on Saturday that the Reno event will take place at the Reno Events Center, a 7,000-capacity multi-purpose arena.

Come fight night, Diaz will get his second shot at the EliteXC lightweight title. Most within the industry felt that Diaz was all but handed the belt when he was scheduled to face then-little-known Noons in November 2007. However, Noons — who’s also dabbled in professional boxing — upset Diaz and forced a TKO stoppage due to cuts to become EliteXC’s first-ever lightweight champ.

Noons has made one successful title defense with a 48-second TKO of Yves Edwards in June. He was then scheduled to rematch Diaz at “Heat,” but Noons and his manager, Mark Dion, declined the fight last month. While recently speaking to MMAjunkie.com, they hinted that they were unhappy with Noons’ pay and also felt Diaz wasn’t the top contender.

EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw eventually issued Noons a deadline to accept the bout and questioned his heart and desire to fight. The deadline passed, and Noons was stripped of the belt in September.

Diaz, who’s won three consecutive fights since the loss to Noons (with only one loss in his past nine fights), now meets Alvarez, who’s riding a five-fight win streak of his own. Alvarez, a 24-year-old Philadelphia native and the former BodogFIGHT welterweight champion, recently competed in the DREAM lightweight grand prix. He defeated Andre Amade and Joachim Hansen to advance to the semifinals. Alvarez then headed to DREAM.5 in July and defeated Tatsuya Kawajiri to earn a spot in the tournament finale later that night. However, Alvarez wasn’t cleared to fight due to facial swelling.

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